To Be a Wolf
by thestorythatshewrote
Summary: Teddy and Victoire are best friends. Until they aren't. A prequel to "Howl to the Moon" {Part 1 of 3 in the "By the Phases of the Moon" Series}


Teddy is all of two years old when Victoire is born.

He toddles into the room, Harry following with careful hands behind to support him should he fall, and stops dead at the sight of the tiny thing in Fleur's arms.

Victoire is a puff of bright blonde hair and big blue eyes, and she quiets down from her wailing the moment that the blue haired little boy steps into the room.

From that moment, it's always _Teddy and Victoire_ as far as any of the Weasley's, Potter's, and Tonks' are concerned.

Victoire's first word is "Teddy", the first steps she takes are towards him, and at any family gathering one child could be found by spotting the other.

When Teddy turns five Fleur offers to lead him in the French tradition of beginning a magical education earlier on at home, and a barely three year old Victoire joins, working twice as hard to stay caught up with her older best friend.

For those six years before Teddy goes to Hogwarts, he and Victoire learn basic Ancient Runes, dissect fairy tales of magical and muggle origin alike, memorize basic uses of potions ingredients and practice herbology in Fleur's garden.

And then Teddy is gone, whisked away by a great train that billows steam, to a place very, very far from Victoire.

There's a letter addressed to the whole family, delivered to the Burrow, that proudly proclaims Teddy a Hufflepuff, and while the rest of the family descends into a pandemonium of stories about old Hogwarts days and house competitions and how any house except Slytherin would have done, Fleur draws aside her desolate eldest daughter, and Victoire's younger siblings, and spins them tales of the school they'll attend when they're old enough, of a grand chateau on the coast in France, of uniforms of blue satin and silk, and being able to take specific classes like Ancient Runes and Astronomy as a first year and on, unlike her silly cousins at that English school who don't get to take such courses until fifth year.

The rest of the fall spins by around Victoire in a blur of further schooling with her Maman, her little sister Dominique joining them while baby brother Louis gurgles to himself and plays with his toys on the carpeted floor next to the table they use as desks. In between trips to the orchards by the Burrow with Molly and Lucy to pick apples, Aunt Ginny weaving flowers into the girls' hair, Maman's tales of the beautiful school she will be attending in a mere few years, and skipping rocks on the ocean with her sister and Papa on chilly evenings once he's apparated back from work, Victoire finds herself not missing her Teddy too terribly.

Somewhere in between, Fleur and Bill sit Victoire down and explain the scars that mar her Papa's face, and suddenly Victoire's nights are interspersed by screaming and terrified fits driven by dreams where a great man-wolf comes in the night and scoops her up in his jaws and escapes with her into the forest.

But Maman and Papa assure Victoire that there are no werewolves that would take her, and that they will protect her, and that there is no forest nearby anyhow, so where would it possibly come from or go to, the beach?

So life spins on and Victoire's nightmares lessen ever so slightly, that she can at least sleep through the night again, and her return to assisting her mother with gardening at night is final proof of her phobia being assuaged enough to live with.

And then the Christmas Hols arrive, and Maman puts up a huge tree and decorates it with fairy lights, and Victoire and Dominique help their Grandmum bake what seems to be thousands and thousands of sugary treats for their assorted family and friends.

And then Teddy's home.

But it's not the Teddy that left.

This Teddy's hair is brown, always brown, and goes by his _real_ first initials, ER. This Teddy doesn't have time for Victoire, time to run around the Burrow with Victoire, or to build snowball forts with Victoire, or go ice skating on the pond with Victoire, this Teddy doesn't even have time to reassure Victoire that not all werewolves are bad, and that she needn't be so afraid of them. This Teddy is always writing to his new friends or having one of them stay over with him at his grandmother Andromeda's, and for the first New Year's morning in Victoire's life, Teddy isn't there to celebrate on the chilly shore with her and her family.

But Victoire holds onto hope, because Teddy has always been her Teddy, and she wouldn't give up the squishy flip flop feeling her stomach gets every time she sees him laugh for the world, and maybe, she thinks, just maybe, Teddy will want to be friends again once she's gone off to school like him and come back.

So Victoire goes to Beauxbatons and finds other friends, friends who speak French like her, friends who don't mind sullying their satin skirts for the sake of dipping their toes in the ocean or digging for the prettiest rock right as the tide rolls up, friends who explore the fields around the school alongside Victoire and who have her teach them to charm flowers into pretty crowns that they weave into their hair.

And for Christmas Hols they spend the year with Maman's side of the family in France, and Victoire doesn't have to worry about not so nice boys who may or may not want to be her friend now, and instead eagerly retells all her favorite stories about her school adventures, and insists on being called "Tori" all the time, because even though it used to be restricted to only her aunts, uncles, and cousins, her new friends have said that it fits her perfectly, and Victoire isn't one to deny herself a more fitting nickname.

And at the end of the school year her Maman and little Dominique, who is awfully grown up now, meet her in the beautiful grassy field just outside of Paris, and Victoire sprints into the arms of her Maman, satin blue skirts flying with the wind and her sheer momentum.

"Es-tu prêt à rentrer à la maison?" Fleur inquires, laughing.

"Oui, Maman," Victoire replies, eagerly tugging her younger sister into a hug, as well, "je suis prêt."

And Victoire's joy at returning to England lasts for quite a while, as she takes to re-embracing her old life with vigor, tenderly seeing to the garden, taking a splash in the chilly waters of the sea, and chasing Molly and Lucy and Fred and James across the wide lawn of the Burrow.

But Teddy still doesn't have time for Victoire.

Teddy's hair is still brown, and he still goes by ER, and he still seems utterly bored with anything that isn't his Hogwarts friends.

But Victoire is older now, and she still tries, insists on talking to Teddy's friends and attempting to join their games and adventures whenever possible, trying to show Teddy that she's gone off to school now, too, she's old enough to join in.

But Teddy doesn't want her to join in.

Teddy instead demands "Haven't you made any friends of your own at that French school that you can go bother instead?"

And Victoire straightens her back, and bites down hard on her lip, and walks away. Because she will not let such a horrible boy make her cry. Because when she makes it into the house and her Papa catches the glistening of her eyes, he gently wipes away the few escaped tears and tells her that many people will be awfully rude or mean in life, and that it will take her special kind of strength to get through it. That she must fight for herself, and that her family will always be behind her, supporting her, and that she will be the little wolf that he knows she so fiercely is.

And Victoire takes the words to heart, to be a wolf, to be the little wolf that her father has spoken of, to be wild but loyal and fierce but kind, because if werewolves are the one thing that frightens her the most, then she will channel the strongest qualities of the animal which they so resemble to frighten away people who would otherwise demean and diminish her, Teddy Lupin be damned.

 **A/N:**

 **Hey all!**

 **Thanks for checking out To Be a Wolf! I'm working on the multi-chapter story that should follow this one, so keep an eye out for Howl to the Moon. If you have the time, please leave a review and let me know what you think about the story!**

 **-J**


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